Recipe | Basil Mushroom & Goat’s Cheese Pitta Pizzas

This week is World Meat Free Week, a campaign to encourage consumers to try at least one meat free meal per week. If you’re a follower of mine, you’ll know that I eat lots of vegetarian and sometimes vegan meals. In fact, we very rarely cook with meat at home now. I’m not a vegetarian but I love veggie food. It’s often so colourful and full of flavour. The more vegetarian meals we eat, the more I realise that most dishes don’t need meat.

By reducing our meat consumption we’re in turn also helping the environment. Did you know that it takes the same amount of water to make one beef burger as it does for one person to shower for two months! That’s insane! Unfortunately meat consumption isn’t sustainable. As the world’s population increases, this will only get worse. On the flip side, more and more people are becoming vegetarian and vegan, or reducetarian – which I guess we are. I hate that word but I’m passionate about this campaign. Meat Free Monday’s has been hugely successful so let’s help World Meat Free Week have the same success!

Ingredients (serves 2):

4x small wholemeal pitta

120g tomato and basil sauce

2x portobello mushrooms, sliced

1x small red onion, sliced

1 tsp brown sugar

6x rounds goat’s cheese

1/2 bunch fresh basil

4 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp olive oil

Black pepper to season

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees. Place the pittas on a baking tray, lined with grease proof paper. Evenly spread the tomato and basil sauce over each pitta.

Add a tablespoon of olive oil to a small pan on a low heat. Add the sugar and once the mixture starts bubbling, add the mushrooms and red onion. Sauté for 3-4 minutes until browned.

Place the mushrooms and red onion on top of the pittas, with 2 rounds of goat’s cheese teared over each. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven, tear over the fresh basil leaves, place two on each plate and drizzle with a little balsamic vinegar and a sprinkling of black pepper.